US320604A - Blast-furnace - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) v 2 SheetsSheet 1.

' P. L. WEIMER.

BLAST FURNAOE. No. 320,604. Papented June 23,1885.

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P. L. WEIMER.

. BLAST FURNACE. No. 320,604. Patented June 23, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER L. WEIMER, OF LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA.

BLAST-FURNACE.

QFECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,604, dated June 23, 1885.

Application filed April 13, 1885. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PETER L. WEIMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lebanon, in the county of Lebanon and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Blast-Furnaces, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

In the working of blast-furnaces it has been discovered that frequent changes in the temperature of the interior of the furnace occur. At times and for days in succession the temperature will run exceedingly high, while on other days it will be comparatively low. During periods when the furnace is working under high temperatures the destructive action of the heat upon the lining is very active, and if not modified by some process of cooling or refrigeration, produced by the application of a cooling medium to the external surface of the walls, the crucible and boshes will soon be destroyed. On the contrary, when the furnace is working under low temperatures the cooling of the walls should be correspondingly reduced. to prevent an undue reduction of the temperature of the furnace.

Hcretofore it has been the practice to apply cold water to the exterior of the furnace-walls, as shown in Letters Patent granted to me 00- tober 23, 1883, No. 287,204, and in which provision is made to regulate the quantity of water passed through the cooling-vessels to meet the requirements due to the changes of temperature under which the furnace is working. This practice is attended with great expense in the construction of the devices used, and also requires a great quantity of water to keep up the cooling effect, at no small cost where the water is required to be raised by means of pumps. Furthermore, in the practice referred to it is necessary for the operators to watch the working of the furnace closely, in order to enable them to regulate the supply of water in quantities to suit the requirements occasioned by the changes in the temperature of the walls. This practice is subject to a further objection namely, theintense heat of the walls causes them to expand, and frequently produces cracks therein, and the expansion of the walls is liable to fracture the plates of the metallic jacket containing the water, which, leaking from the jackets, will k find its way through the cracks in the wall into the interior of the furnace, greatly to the injury thereof.

Another practice has been to force air into a jacket surrounding the crucible by means of an ordinary blower.

In both of the instances referred to the cooling medium is supplied by mechanical means, and has not come into direct contact with the brick-work of the crucible and bosh.

The object of my invention is to provide a cooling or refrigerating apparatus for blastfurnaces which will greatly reduce the cost of construction, dispense with the machinery at present employed for supplying the cooling medium, and automatically supply atmospheric air directly to the walls of the crucible and bosh in quantities varying as the temperture of said walls increases and decreases.

A further object of my invention is to dispense'with the metallic binders employed in forming the sides of the air-chambers, as shown in another application of even date of filing, Serial No. 162,143, and instead thereof extend the masonry of the stack at intervals around its circumference to form the sides of a series of air-chambers.

\Vith these objects in View my invention consists in the construction hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention pertains to make and use the same, I will proceed to describe its construction.

Reference being had to the accompanying drawings which form part of this specification, Figure-1 represents a side view of a blastfurnace embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 represents the contour of the sections composing the casing.

The walls A of the stack are formed with radial projections B, which extend throughout the entire height of the furnace. Surrounding the stack is a sheetmetal jacket or casing, G, forming an annulus between the outer surface of the wall A and the inner surface of the casing. The annulus forms an airchamber, which is divided into separate compartments by the projecting portions B of the masonry, which may be distributed at any desired number of intervals around the circumference of the stack, according to the number of separate air-chambers to be formed. The annulus extends from the bosh to the top of the furnace, and that portion below the mantle E is provided with numerous perforations arranged on different planes for the admission of air to the walls of the crucible and bosh, while the portion above the mantle, and extending to the top of the furnace, serves as a chimney, which creates a draft through the perforation in the casing below the mantle and carries off the air as it becomes heated in the chambers surrounding the stack.

WVhen the furnace is working under high temperatures, the heat conveyed through the walls of the crucible and bosh will act upon the air contained in the chambers surrounding said walls, rarefying it rapidly, and cause a corresponding ingress of cool air to supply the place of the heated air passing up through the chambers or channels into the chimney, and maintain an even temperature of the walls, approximating to the temperature of the passing air. It will be observed that air is admitted to the chambers at different points between the bosh and the mantle, thus keeping up a continual change in the air where its cooling effect is required.

When the temperature of the furnace changes from a high to a low degree, the amount of heat transmitted through the walls is correspondingly reduced, and the air in the chambers, being less rapidly rarefied, the quantity of inflowing air will be diminished and the walls maintained at nearly the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere.

From the description of the operation of my device it will be apparent that it is automatic in its action, varying the quantities of the cooling medium according to the slightest variations in the temperature of the furnace, and requires no attention from the workmen engaged about the furnace.

The casing is composed of sections, which may be detachably secured together by bolts throughout that portion belowthe mantle, as shown at D, which will facilitate their removal should any cause arise therefor durin the working of the furnace.

In the application hereinbefore referred to I have claimed, broadly, the combination of an automatic cooling or refrigerating apparatus, into which the air is admitted at different points below the mantle, with the stack of a blast-furnace, and therefore limit my claim in this application to the construction herein shown and described.

I am aware that in English Patent No. 1,959, of 1871, a furnace is shown with double walls, the outer one having projections formed in the masonry, which are surrounded by a casing, and that stacks have been surrounded by chambers to which air has been admitted through inlets located at the bottom only. Such construction I do not, therefore, claim.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. A blast-furnace stack having projections formed in the masonry constituting the walls of the stack, in combination with a metallic casing provided with a series of air-inlets, arranged on different horizontal planes, and outlets, substantially as described.

2. A blast-furnace stack formed of a single wall of masonry, the inner surface of which is exposed to the heat of the furnace and the outer surface to constantly-changing currents of air, said outer surface having projections formed in the masonry, in combination with a metallic casing perforated, as shown, and adapted to supply air at different points below the mantle in direct contact with the heated wall and in quantities varying as the temperature of the furnace rises and falls, substantially as described.

3. A blast-furnace stack having projections formed in the masonry constituting the wall of the stack and extending to the top of the furnace, in combination with ametallic casing composed of detachable sections perforated below the mantle, as shown, and imperforated above the mantle, substantially as described. 4. A blast-furnace stack composed of a single wall of masonry surrounded by a metallic casing forming an annulus between the stack and the casing, in combination with projections formed in the masonry and separating the annulus into a series of independent air chambers supplied with air through inlets arranged in different horizontal planes in the casing, whereby the ascending column of heated air is augmented by supplies of cool air, substantially as described. In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

PETER L. \VEIMER.

Witnesses:

L. E. WVEIMER, W. MORRIS WEIDMAN.

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